Friday, August 17, 2018

In all my years of being knee deep in science here on the Colorado Plateau, I have had the great opportunity of attending many science conference all over the place, and the Pecos Conference was by far the best I have ever seen for so many different reasons that you will hear all about during this episode.

So please, come take a field trip with me out to base of the San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona, where the Pecos was held this year. And for those that might not know, the Pecos Conference is a southwest archaeology gathering and has been going strong since the 1920's. Hear from some of the attendees and organizers as they share memories of the Pecos, their research, and their hopes for the future of this truly unique and worthwhile science conference.

The main tent of the Pecos, where all the magic happens.

Special thanks to Archaeologists Michael Terlep, Kim Spurr and David Purcell for making it happen, and truly hope to do more field trip episodes in the future.

And a deep thanks to all the folks who lent their voices, their memories and their passions to this episode. I think I had enough interviews for two programs, and can't thank you enough.

Friday, August 3, 2018

Join us for a special edition of your humble regional science show all about wildfires, megafires, and the women and men that fight them.

Forest fire beneath dark skies. Photo by astrosherpa

In this edition we will attend a lecture with Forest Ecologist Paul Hessburg all about the history of fire suppression and how we have created the ingredients for mega-fires that are larger than 100,000 acres. Also a discussion on how to prevent these wildfires through thinning and prescribed burns, and why ponderosa pines are fire dependent. And finally we look towards the wildland firefighters, true heroes of the West and especially of our region. We will see what it is like to attend Fire School, hear a great report about Hotshots, and an audio postcard from some of the elite Smokejumpers, and find out about what exactly that red stuff is that they dump from planes onto fire lines.

A Smokejumper headed into the wild.

If you would like to learn more about how to become a Wildland Firefighter head over to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group for some great information and answers to some of your questions.